September 23, 2008

Local Rangers Commended

The rescue of a father and son from an abandoned well and a series of efforts to promote safety at Thurmond Lake earned statewide awards recently for two Thomson-based wildlife rangers.

Ranger First Class Brian Adams was honored with his department's Individual Heroism Award for his rescue of a 7-year-old Glascock County child who had fallen into a 40-foot abandoned well on Jan. 29.

Responding to a 911 call, Adams found that both the child and his father were at the bottom of the narrow well shaft, which was filled with water.

He found a garden hose nearby and lowered it to the bottom, where the man and his son were able to hold themselves above water until deputies and other personnel arrived with rope from a nearby hardware store that was used to hoist them to safety.

Ranger First Class Robert Timmerman received the department's annual Individual Safety Award for his ongoing efforts to improve boating and water safety at Thurmond Lake.

In 2005, he began developing a plan to place street signs on all bridges that cross the lake as an effort to help lost boaters more quickly determine their location during emergencies.

With the help of Georgia's Department of Transportation, that project was completed in 2007, with the installation of 44 such signs throughout the 70,000-acre lake.

Timmerman, who has been with the division for seven years, also was recognized as the 2008 Region III Law Enforcement Ranger of the Year and the 2008 Region III Law Enforcement Investigative Ranger of the Year.